This invention relates to dry water-soluble beverage materials and, more particularly, to water-soluble instant lemon flavored tea cubes.
A number of processes have been developed for producing "instant coffee," "instant tea" or other dry substances that will dissolve in water to form a desired beverage. Generally, these processes form either granular agglomerates or tablets of the dry beverage substance. The agglomerates are formed by first blending a dry integrated beverage material from substances such as instant coffee, sugar and powdered milk. The material is then ground to a fine particle size, moistened, agitated and dried to form the granular agglomerate. The tablets or cubes, which are usually sufficient to make one cup of the beverage, are formed by combining the flavor material (e.g. coffee or tea) with a binder material (e.g. fat and an emulsifier) and forming the combination into the desired shape. When such a beverage tablet is dissolved in water, the binder must not affect the taste or appearance of the resulting beverage. When fat and an emulsifier are used as the binder, the emulsifier must disperse the fat so that no droplets of fat are visible on the surface of the beverage.
Alternatively, a beverage cube can be made by combining the flavor material with a vehicle (such as ethyl alcohol) and water to form a damp, but non-cohesive powder. Then the damp powder is formed into a cube under pressure and dried to evaporate the vehicle.
The agglomerates formed by previous methods are unsatisfactory because it is difficult to measure out the proper amount when the beverage is made. Also, they are inconvenient to store. The cubes or tablets formed by prior methods also have disadvantages in that the binder or vehicle is never completely eliminated from the beverage and may affect its taste and appearance.